In 2006, the Westside football team came into the state championship game with a record of 11-1. It was led by quarterback Colt Anderson, who had thrown for over 2,000 yards on the season. Its op-ponent, Kearney, was also 11-1.

Tuesday, Nov. 26, this year’s Westside football team entered the state championship game 11-1. This time it was led by quarterback senior Chris-tian Hagan, who had accumulated over 2,000 yards passing on the season. It also faced an 11-1 team, Omaha North, for the title.

The similarities continue. For the 2006 team, an early match-up with Creighton Prep helped people gauge the team’s potential for success.

“We knew [we had a special team] after we played the Prep game,” said Westside hall super-visor Trent Goodman, who was on the 2006 team. “[That game] would help us with our playoff run because we had some adversity that game. We were down 23-7 at halftime, and then we came back and won the game, obviously.”

Goodman, who is now an assistant football coach, saw the possibility for greatness early with this year’s team as well, and noticed the traits shared with the 2006 squad following Westside’s 14-7 victory over the Junior Jays this year.

“I get along with the kids pretty well and being a younger coach, I kind of talk with them, and I kind of knew after the second or third game that this was a special group,” Goodman said. “I kind of [saw] the same similarities that we had as a

8701 Pacific St. Omaha, NE 68114

Volume 58 Issue 4

December 13, 2013

THElanceJOURNEY TO STATE

Past football players reflect on championship runs

Vice Principal Trudi Nolin looks through video footage covering the south lot Dec. 9. Nolin said about half of the car vandalism cases reported are solved from the surveillance footage. Photo by Sarah Lemke

BY AREN RENDELL

EDITOR-IN-Chief

PARKING LOT vandalismCar parts stolen from school lots; car stolen from hill

Most adults remember the day they first got their driver’s license. Many also have fond mem-ories of how being able to drive added newfound independence in their lives.

Driving simply becomes fun. Whether it’s to a friend’s house or just to school, driving with your newfound freedom becomes way cooler then having to be latched in the family minivan.

In many cases, new drivers are very cautious of their new possession. Locked doors, steering wheel locks and putting the car alarm on are just a few precautions many teens take protect their cars they worked hard for or were entrusted with.

No one ever expects to have their car stolen. But junior John Neubaum was one of these teens when his car was stolen from the hill next to the school lot late in the first semester last year.

“I walked out to where I usually park my car, and it was just not there,” Neubaum said. “I was stunned. I had always heard about people getting their cars stolen. I just never thought it would be me.”

While Neubaum’s situation was extreme, other students have also reported incidents of car vandalism in the lots. Senior Hanco Germi-

shuys even reported parts stolen off his truck. “They sawed my catalytic converters off,” Ger-

mishuys said. “I was very disappointed, not only in the fact that my converters were gone but the fact that it happened at school.”

For Neubaum and Germishuys, the damages cost both of their families over $1,000 each to repair. In both cases the school couldn’t do any-thing, as the cars were out of the viewing angle of school security cameras.

“I asked to see security footage, and they only had footage for the actual parking lot rather than the hill where I was parked,” Neubaum said. “All we could do was file a police report.”

In these situations, the school administration generally leaves the responsibility to the police.

“We have disciplinary authority inside the school,” said dean and parking coordinator Aar-on Bredenkamp. “If it regards personal property, such as a car, it’s simply best to get the police in-volved.”

Though parking at school is risky, many stu-dents don’t really have a choice.

“After my car was stolen, it worries me even more,” Neubaum said. “It stresses me out all the time.”

Some student drivers believe the outside sur-veillance should be increased to protect student’s

By Connor Flairty

News Editor

group and that this team had.”Both teams lost in the state championship

game. In 2006, Westside fell 41-21 to the Kearney Bearcats. This past season, the Warriors fell 23-21 to the North Vikings.

Goodman, who was a junior during the 2006 season, still reminisces on that year with former teammates.

“Any time I’m with my friends and we played football together … it always comes back to that season,” Goodman said. “My senior year we got knocked out first round, and that season [2006] was always what we come back and talk [about]. All the time just ‘Remember that, remember that.’”

For Goodman, there are no huge mistakes he remembers either the team or himself making, but he knows there were errors.

“Looking back … from a coaching standpoint now, I’m like, ‘Gosh, that was dumb. Why did I do that?’” Goodman said. “But you’re in high school. You don’t always want to listen to coaches, and sometimes we’d go away from our keys and stuff, and that would ultimately cost us.”

Goodman’s message to this season’s group is to put the season into perspective. Reaching the state championship is a feat in itself.

“Just cherish it,” Goodman said. “It’s a huge honor to get to the state championship. There’s two teams that get there. Not very many teams can say it. I mean, we’ve been there what, two times since 1982 when we won it back-to-back?”

William Jordan, a member of the 1981 and continued on page 4 of pullout section

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AIMING FOR THE TOPTwo Westside students tried out for reality singing competitions — and one may be headed to Hollywood. See page 16.

December 13, 2013

Senior Lane Yates pumps up the football team before the state championship game against Omaha North Tuesday, Nov. 26. See more photos of the event in the Lance’s center spread and on westsidewired.org. Photo by Clair Selby

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Immediately after the Westside football team won its semifinal game against Millard West, the varsity cheerleaders started texting each other.

It was time to start making signs.The cheerleaders make “Take State” signs for every sport that goes to state, but they knew

the sign-making for football was going to be an extra large operation.For the whole next week, in addition to spending time before and after school making

signs, they spent any open mods when they didn’t have homework in the cheer room work-ing. They made huge signs for the Landing and many other smaller ones for around the school, but that was only the beginning. They also made individual signs for each of the ap-proximately 40 senior football players; each one just said “Take State” and had the player’s last name on it.

The day before the Tuesday state football game, all the freshman, JV and varsity cheer-leaders met by the cheer room after school. Their first task was to divide up, drive to all the senior football players’ houses, and hang up the individual signs on the outside of each house.

“They really love it,” said senior Laura Salisbury, one of the varsity cheerleading captains. “It was a surprise for the guys because they saw it when they got home from practice.”

After the cheerleaders got back from hanging up the individual signs, it was dinnertime. The cheerleaders had pizza, then practiced for the pep rally. Then, after 6, they teamed up with the dance team and really got to work.

There were the huge signs to hang up in the landing and smaller ones to hang up in other parts of the school, but the decorations went far beyond just signs.

In fact, varsity cheerleading coach Amy Studts said the decoration was such a large-scale operation that she had to get the administration’s approval to decorate the school that much.

In addition to hanging up signs, the cheerleaders wrapped streamers in Westside colors around columns in the halls and IMCs, and put balloons in different parts of the school. There were many other decorations, too. One of the most visible was the sets of streamers that extended from the Math IMC balcony to the interior Social Studies IMC windows, and from the Math IMC to the social studies hallway.

To do that, the cheerleaders had one person hold one end of a roll of streamers in the Math IMC, then drop the roll down to the media center. From there, it was unraveled as someone walked the rest of each roll over to the destinations. Studts said the creative use of streamers was the girls’ idea.

By Emma JohAnningsmeier

Editor-in-chief

SCHOOL SPIRITDecorations and first pep rally in years pump Westside up for game

DEC. 13, 2013 3in-depth

“The coaches — they supervised,” Salisbury said. “They kind of let us run loose and deco-rate the school however we wanted. It was kind of like Homecoming all over again.”

With all the 43 cheerleaders, plus the dance team members, working together, the decora-tion took about an hour and a half. Salisbury said in the end, she and the other cheerleaders were satisfied with how the decorations came out.

“[The decorations] all just kind of came together,” Salisbury said. “It was difficult to plan because we didn’t know if the streamer idea was going to work, but it did and we were really happy with that.”

The only disappointment was that even though the cheerleaders and dance team mem-bers waited for most of the basketball players to leave because they wanted the decorations to be a surprise, some still came to the Landing and took pictures they posted online that night.

“That was kind of disappointing. Nobody else knew beside cheerleaders and dance team that it was happening,” Salisbury said.

Still, not everyone had already seen the decorations before they came to school the next day. For most, the decorations still had their “wow” factor on Tuesday.

“We got a lot of positive feedback from students and teachers saying this school has got spirit, and they were excited and pumped for the game that night,” Studts said.

Studts said she felt like the energy in the school the day of the game was “great.” It wasn’t just the decorations or the natural anticipation that did it, though.

For many years, Westside has never had a pep rally during school; Studts said a colleague told her it had been 13 years. Last time Westside went to state, in 2006, there was no rally.

This year, Studts organized the 20-minute pep rally that was held the day of the game during homeroom. She and Assistant Principal Trudi Nolin got together the lineup for the rally, which included cheers by the cheerleaders, a performance by the dance team, music by the pep band, short speeches by head football coach Brett Froendt and the three senior football captains, and chants led by senior Amir Khan. The gym was packed.

“It felt like, ‘Wow, this is a high school like any other school,’” Studts said. “Sometimes I don’t necessarily feel that way. Teaching at other schools, I’ve noticed more school spirit or support, so I’m glad the administration allowed us to do [the pep rally.]”

Despite the amount of work involved in making the posters and doing the decorations, and the fact that Westside ended up losing the state game, Salisbury said she thought making the school festive was worthwhile.

“It’s a pain to have to get up at 6 in the morning and come to school and make posters,” Salisbury said. “But when you see the finished product and everyone’s looking at your deco-rations and signs, it makes it all worth it.”

Decorations and first pep rally in years pump Westside up for game

Photos by Clair Selby and Estella Fox

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STATE: Past players proud of 2013 team 1982 state-championship winning teams and current chairman of the Touchdown Club, which focuses on supporting the football program, sees commonalities with the football team and another part of Westside: the community and its people.

“I think that the football team really personifies the persona that Westside, our community wants to exem-plify,” Jordan said. “I think that that’s a great thing. We’re hard-working, tough nosed people that strive to succeed, and I think that that comes through in our football players. Our football players really live that.”

For non-student fans like Jordan — the father of football players sophomores Grant and Spencer Jor-dan and Westside alum and current Nebraska Corn-husker Harrison Jordan — there is delight in the state run.

“There’s a lot of invested energy that parents, the fans, the community, businesses all put forth in help-ing the football team succeed,” Jordan said. “And when they do succeed, I think that that’s a point of pride for everybody. Everybody can say, ‘Hey, that’s my team.’”

Jordan was thrilled to be a part of supporting the team and its coaches, who he thinks help build the Westside Community.

“I’m very proud of our boys,” Jordan said. “I think that coach Froendt and his coaching staff are probably the best, if not the best, high school coaching staff that any high school has. I think that they are a huge reason as to why the team is successful. They teach and indoc-trine and get these boys to come together as a team, and I’m humbled by the fact that I get to do my part as chairman of the Touchdown Club to help the program in any way I can.”

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The excitement could be felt in the air as the West-side Warrior football team played in its first state championship game since 2006. After all of the hype and attention it got, the game did not disappoint.

The day started with a pep rally in the main gym.After a long day of school, much of the student body then made the trek to Lincoln to see the Warriors play.

“I was impressed by the turnout because you have to drive an hour to Lincoln,” said senior Joe Dahir, a Red Shield leader. “You could sense the passion in the student section.”

The student section took up almost an entire section and a half at Memorial Stadium. Some students even showed up as early as 5 p.m. for a student tailgate.

When the game started the student section was cheering loudly, even without some of the things usual-ly present at Westside games, like the “I believe” chant, baby powder, and junior Tom Seline running the flag. The students were accompanied by parents, alumni and fans from the community.

Overall, 6,785 total fans showed up to support ei-ther Westside or Omaha North. The fans braved the 20-degree temperature and 11-miles-per-hour wind to show up and cheer on their team.

“I couldn’t feel my toes,” senior Mitch Bruckner said. “[I] couldn’t feel my fingers. But you could feel the school spirit in the air.”

Unfortunately, the Warriors couldn’t manage a vic-tory. A deflected pass set up a Viking victory.

Even without the victory, the Westside fans showed their devotion. Many alumni and fans from the com-munity went to the game along with students.

Many Westside teachers also attended the game. The entire business team was at the game. Business instructor Sarah Schau said she enjoyed the game even with the loss

“[The atmosphere was] awesome,” Schau said. “My favorite part was seeing all the alumni there. I saw kids that I taught in my first year teaching.”

By Tim Graves

sports EDITOR

Students brave cold to experience state game

for full recap oF state game, visit westsidewired.org

Proud to call myself a Westside Warrior. Keep your heads up. Hell of a season. #rollside

@Harrison_J45

11/26/13

@TeflonDobTo the coaches that have built one hell of a program and to my teammates who I would take a bullet for, love and respect. #OfficiallyRetired11/26/13

@Nikki_Wagner14Tomorrow at this time we’ll be screaming our heads off in 25 degree weather #rollside11/25/13

@reese_ES_piecezWestside... You’re in it, might as well win it! #TAKESTATE11/15/13

@fresh_AF_Regardless of tonight, couldn’t be more proud of my dad and the Westside coaching staff. They’ve made an impact that will last forever11/26/13

TOUCHDOWN WARRIORS! Hagan hits Conway-Smith for a 28 yard score! PAT is good! Warriors LEAD 21-17, 41 seconds left 3W. #rollside

@westsidewired

11/26/13

@MotorM0THANK YOU SENIORS11/26/13

@BROtherCK

#underconstruction no more. #TAKESTATE11/15/13

@_Flair_Bear_

Sorry to all the fans we may have disapointed, but we didn’t lack heart, every one of my brothers on the field played like a warrior tonight11/26/13